The present invention relates to an instrument for analyzing biological samples, and in particular, to an all-in-one instrument that is capable of dispensing, amplifying, and analyzing biological samples.
A biological sample and reagent mixture can undergo amplification and analysis to detect the presence of an analyte in the mixture. Historically, biological sample and reagent mixtures were amplified and analyzed for research applications, including DNA sequencing, gene mapping, and DNA cloning, among other things. Biological sample and reagent mixture amplification and analysis is becoming increasingly popular and innovative uses are constantly being discovered, including medical applications, infectious disease applications, and forensic applications. With the increase in popularity of biological sample and reagent mixture amplification and analysis comes a need for more advanced equipment.
Equipment that is currently available to prepare, amplify, and analyze a biological sample and reagent mixture includes laboratory equipment, handheld devices, and lab-on-a-chip devices. Handheld devices and lab-on-a-chip devices are not capable of testing a large number of biological sample and reagent mixtures at the same time, thus making them unsuitable for many applications. To amplify and analyze a large number of biological sample and reagent mixtures, laboratory equipment must be used. Laboratory equipment typically involves many separate pieces of equipment, where each piece of equipment is used for a different purpose. For instance, a first piece of equipment can be used to prepare the biological sample and reagent mixture, a second piece of equipment can be used to amplify the biological sample and reagent mixture, and a third piece of equipment can be used to analyze the biological sample and reagent mixture. The different pieces of equipment take up a lot of space in laboratories and it can be costly to acquire all of the equipment needed to prepare, amplify, and analyze the biological sample and reagent mixture. Further, the amount of biological sample and the amount of reagent needed to analyze the biological sample and reagent mixture using existing laboratory equipment can be expensive due to the cost of acquiring the biological sample and the reagent.